Welcome and Introduction
September 12th, 2006 by Kelley
Welcome to my nerdy world. When people meet me and learn about my abnormal love for the ‘creepy-crawly’ they often ask what it is that turns a girl like me into such an entomophiliac. Maybe you are one of the few people who could care less (if so, don’t bother reading the next couple sentences). I think there a couple of factors that are to blame for my vocaional choice:
- Ever since I can remember, I always knew I wanted to be a biologist. It didn’t matter what aspect of biology, I’m easily entertained by the great outdoors. And since the tv is the greatest babysitter a kid can have, shows like Wild America and other Nat’l Geographic programs helped glorify the life of a biologist. There is an aspect of biology I always knew I could never do…and that was/is with anything under the cellular level. My brain so does not like thinking about things that small.
- Growing up in the windy city…there are only so many kinds of living creatures that grace your presence, the most common being cockroaches and pigeons. Cockroaches still give me the willies, yet I am strangely fascinated by them. The only thing pigeons are good for is chasing, trust me.
- It wasn’t until college that I really solidified the choice to make insects my (hopefully life-long) career, and that decision was partially based on the fact that there are SO many (Im bound to find an uexplored niche) and most people don’t care what kind of things you do to insects when studying them. I can collect them, I can pin them, I can inject them with different drugs and see how it affects them…and all without a permit or angry protests from PETA.
So thats how I got my start with bugs. Just a warning…I am no tech-savvy kind of person, so this site may have a slow start until I get the hang of things.
Stay tuned.
Hi Kelley. Great website! I, too, love everything about the outdoors so I’m looking forward to your posts. About 22 years ago the TV at our house was also tuned to Wild America and National Geographic. In fact, I had Nat’l Geo books on animals from A to Z, pop-up habitat books, and other stories about nature. I had no idea the influence this would have on young minds. So take encouragement to know that you, too, may be shaping young minds toward biology.
Not tech-savvy? Looks like you’re doing pretty good to me…
You aren’t the only girl into bugs…a few more of us, we can have our own female-powered bug blog ring.
Looking forward to your posts & pix!
Kelley,
Wow! This is unbelieveable you have such a great talent, and I would have never guessed working as your lab partner in 8th grade! I truely miss you, but I can now see how much the bug world needs you! Write soon!
Jackie
Kelley, What a great job. You must have had a great professor during your graduate years. Keep up the good work.
Hey sista-girlfriend…just looking at your sight again…I love the pic of you in the woods…you look really happy to be doing what you are doing. Man, I miss hanging out with you, well, I have to get back to the hell that is USAFA, love ya!